this and $(this) refers to the same element. The only difference is the way they are used. ‘this’ is used in traditional sense, when ‘this’ is wrapped in $() then it becomes a jQuery object and you are able to use the power of jQuery.

$(document).ready(function(){
$(‘#spnValue’).mouseover(function(){
alert($(this).text());
});
});
In below example, this is an object but since it is not wrapped in $(), we can’t use jQuery method and use the native JavaScript to get the value of span element.

$(document).ready(function(){
$(‘#spnValue’).mouseover(function(){
alert(this.innerText);
});
});